Bullet and fragment resistant body armor vests and garments are standard personal protective equipment for military and law enforcement personnel. Their usage in most cases is mandatory and can be very effective in reducing casualties. Among other things, such bullet and fragment resistant body armor garments seek to protect vital organs and major arteries.
Common materials used for absorbing high kinetic energy projectiles include para-aramid materials from suppliers including E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company of Wilmington, Del., USA and Teijin Aramid of Arnhem, the Netherlands and Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) materials from suppliers including Honeywell International, Inc. of Morristown, N.J., USA (Honeywell) and DSM Dyneema, LLC of Stanley, N.C. One Honeywell product is a flexible ballistic composite made from layers of unidirectional fibers held in place by flexible resins, which is sold under the trademark Spectra Shield™. The fibers are arranged so they cross each other orthogonally, and the fiber and resin layers are sealed between sheets of polyethylene film. The individual fibers, which are produced using a gel-spinning process, are typically bright white polyethylene fibers with high resistance to chemicals, water, and ultraviolet light. They are said to be stronger than steel, forty percent stronger than aramid fiber, and capable of withstanding high-load strain-rate velocities. These and other ballistic materials require multiple layers to be effective against common threats and are usually sequestered in waterproofed panels that are then compartmentalized in sub-layer pockets within a garment.
The resulting multiple layers needed for protection, forty or more plies in some cases, can hinder the range of motion required for adequate bending and stretching. The multiple layers can also lead to comfort challenges and, potentially, shearing within the garment. Many systems are thus bulky and cumbersome. Multiple modular elements are often necessary, and those multiple elements typically require multiple steps for donning and doffing. These further limit the wearer's mobility and hamper performance. Further, the modular ballistic elements can be misaligned, intentionally or unintentionally excluded, and can undesirably shift thereby resulting in exposed body areas and uneven load distribution that can, among other things, contribute to fatigue from thermal, muscular, and skeletal trauma.
A plurality of body armor garment systems and methods have been disclosed by the prior art. However, even with these teachings, body armor garments of the prior art continue to suffer from a number of shortcomings that have prevented significant improvement in fit and comfort. Indeed, many developments have consequently remained merely theoretical in nature.
As a result, it is clear that there remains a need for bullet and fragment resistant garment systems and methods that permit optimized performance, which may be referred to as human or athletic performance, including through greater range of motion and human body performance. It is equally clear that there is a need for such systems and methods where bullet and fragment resistant components can be fully integrated, including to reduce the difficulty of donning and doffing while preventing unintended displacement of the body armor components and evening load distribution thereby reducing fatigue from, for instance, thermal, muscular, and skeletal trauma.
It is recognized that many bullet and fragment resistant body armor systems disclosed by the prior art for military and law enforcement could achieve at least some of their intended purpose if worn properly. However, because their designs require multiple steps for donning and doffing, their use often becomes impractical and leads to improper application and reduced effectiveness. Other constructions can additionally or alternatively present danger and discomfort to the wearer, such as by failing to distribute the substantial weight of body armor evenly on the garment and potentially permitting inadvertent shifting of the modular elements. For example, current military applications that require deltoid protection on the arms use a modular deltoid panel that is separate from the body armor vest. Due to their modularity, the deltoid panels can have reduced effectiveness. For instance, wearers will often eliminate the panels for comfort, or the panels may leave gaps in coverage since they are separate pieces that can shift or may not be sized to stretch to differently sized deltoid muscles. For these and further reasons, it is apparent, at least to the present inventors, that most prior art bullet and fragment resistant body armor systems fail to provide the ease of use and effectiveness necessary for the rigorous and demanding special needs of military and law enforcement users.
A number of body armor apparatuses have sought to protect the user and overcome some of the foregoing issues by further anchoring the system, such as to lower layer garments, underwear, and the wearer's legs or other body parts to prevent shifting and exposure of vital areas. Such systems, even if effective in anchoring the components of the system, unfortunately limit the ease of use and the mobility of the wearer. It will thus be appreciated that the ability to provide a design that is less cumbersome and can be intuitively donned and doffed in a manner similar to any other garment has substantially eluded inventors of the prior art.
In light of the foregoing, it will be appreciated that a fragment and bullet resistant body armor garment that stably retains body armor material while permitting high-level athletic performance would represent a useful advance in the art of body armor, particularly for military and law enforcement personnel.